Both Mr Banks and Labour candidate David Parker yesterday said the outcome of the November 26 election could turn on the result in Epsom.

Recent polling, including Act's own internal research, puts National's candidate, Paul Goldsmith, ahead of Mr Banks in spite of the implicit message to National voters that they should give their electorate vote to Act's man.

Should Mr Banks fail to hold Epsom for Act, the party looks almost certain to lose its presence in Parliament, depriving Prime Minister John Key and his government of the support of five MPs to their right.

Sensing blood in the water, Labour has stepped up its attacks on Mr Banks, which have included leaflets highlighting some of the former Cabinet minister's past statements, including racially charged comments and his unfavourable views on homosexuality.

On Saturday, National-friendly blogsite Kiwiblog ran a guest post from Mr Parker in which he highlighted the recent poll numbers and criticised Mr Banks' record in managing Auckland City's finances.

"Few people knew that John Banks tripled Auckland City Council's debt during his last three years as Mayor," Mr Parker wrote.

"This recent history is very damaging for Key as well as Banks, given their repeated assertions that they are fiscally responsible and Labour is profligate."

Mr Parker claimed Auckland City's debt rose from $135 million to $738 million during his Act rival's last term as mayor. The Herald has reported that debt rose from $322 million to $867 million over the same period.

Why the bore of Babylon, David Farrar is fuelling ACT's demise with his polls pointing to ACT's Epsom meltdown and giving David Parker a platform to slash Banks throat is a blog topic all on its own. Farrar is a far right propagandist for the Government who uses his corporate media platforms disgustingly handed to him by Stuff and NZ Herald to masquerade as lite right, (at least Stuff put up a counter perspective, NZ Herald just gives this Government propagandist free reign).

Davids wet dream, and National's wet dream is a National-Green Government. Don simply terrifies too many with his obvious burn and slash economic mentality. National have succeeded to date because Key's smile and wave eclipses the threat of the hard right doctrine National are trying to sneak in. Under the camouflage of a relationship with the Greens, John Key could privatize the entire continental shelf of NZ and get away with it.

ACT of course haven't helped themselves. Rodney Hide's hypocrisy, David Garrett's hypocrisy, Don's racist bullshit, ACT's internal squabbling over how racist they can be, Don's weed dreams and of course John Bank's Auckland City Council blow out have all combined to form a political party that is simply a joke that even the up tight residents of Epsom can simply no longer tolerate.

National still believe they can win the election outright, propped up by Dunne and the Maori Party with camouflage provided by the Greens, it's a risky tactic to destroy ACT in order to look moderate, but the arrogance on display within the National war room, propped up by deeply flawed landline opinion polls, means hubris may have a bigger hand to play on November 26th.

2 Comments:

National’s electorate candidate is not really campaigning to win. And if he doesn’t want to win, why is he standing? To give Epsom National supporters a “wink and a nod” to Electorate Vote ACT and Party Vote National?

And if such is the case – what possible legitimacy does that give ACT when they can’t attract electorate support on their own merits?

So much for ACT being a Party that encourages success through merit. Especially when they apply the merit-based principle to Maori:

Do parliament or the people of Epsom need John Banks back in office? On his appearance on the Q+A show on the Sunday before last, he came accross as a bitter has-been and repeated the line 'The Labour Party is ‘BORROW, TAX, HOPE AND SPEND’ seven times, like a parrot. Not only that, if Banks does win Epsom, he will bring with him the ACT freak show that has plagued parliament for years. National have put up a 'hollow man' candidate with no interest in taking the seat, so it is up to Epsom voters to see through the political manipulation happening here and dispatch the ACT Party once and for all.